What's Your Favorite Thing About DVD?

With the age of digital entertainment among us, I'd like to ask all of you (assuming someone's actually here) to name your favorite aspect of DVD. Picture, sound, price. Name you choice.

As for me? I'm an extra man myself. I can't get enough of deleted scenes and the sort. It's the main reason I started buying these little bits of digital candy!

For me, I'm a movie-lover and I must say that movies have always been about sight and sound.

I crave anamorphic, beatiful-lookin and great-soundin DVDs. As long as I get my favorite movies presented in the best way possible, I'm very happy.

Imagine SW being released with a shitload of extras and a non-anamorphic transfer. I sure wouldn't buy it.

When good extras are presented, like on the great A Bug's Life Collector's Edition, they do very much enhance the experience of the DVD. But they're not the reason why I would buy one in the first place.

[Slider]

Extras... and the ease of access to those extras.

Have you ever tried to just watch the special edition material on VHS tapes?

Slider

Can you say... never having to rewind again...music to my ears.

For me it is picture and sound, which is more important depends. I'll be watching something, first its "look at that picture.." and then 5 minutes later, "wow did you hear that".

So it is the whole movie experience that DVD offers.

David.

[micahp]

Picture and sound are, of course, the most important aspect for me.

But extras go a long way towards convincing me...

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Resident Me,
Micah P.
Digital Dreams

[hgoodman]

I would have to say, the almost total lack of (visible) chroma noise, which was always irritating to me on laserdisc, and the tremendous time-base stability of the picture. In other words, credits just "hang" there, rock-solid, with no judder. Add to that a lack of visible disc defects (remember all the little "sparklies" on laserdisc from every third pressing??), low player noise, easy storage... boy, I could go on and on and on! I can't limit it to just one thing that sold me on the format. It's all these tremendous features combined.

[gotdvd?]

1. Anamorphic Widescreen
2. Deleted Scenes
3. Outtakes/Gag Reels

If every DVD included these three things I'd be in digital movie heaven.

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gotdvd?

[Filmmaker]

Micah Wolford, out of the four features you mentioned, I rate them as:

1) Picture
2) Sound
3) Extra Features
4) Price

www.dvdtracker.com/~filmmaker
www.laserdisctracker.com/~filmmaker.asp

I like the picture and sound and extras but I also like being able to OWN my favorite movies just a few months after I saw them in the theater. Which means if the studios pull this rental pricing time window crap then I will be buying alot less dvds because I'm a real big impulse buyer when it comes to dvd. By the way if anyone thinks the average price of dvds will drop from $20-$25 to $10-$15 because of rental time windows then you are dreaming because believe it or not, the studios are pretty greedy when it comes to maximizing revenue.

[Rejemy]

One word: A N A M O R P H I C !

I watched Mask of Zorro night before last, and then last night I watched Last of the Mohicans. On my 50" widescreen monitor, the difference between the anamorphic high-def Zorro transfer and the non-anamorphic muddy, blurry, washed out old Mohicans transfer made me want to kick Fox in the groin.

P.S. And to add insult to injury, Mohicans was supposedly THX certified!! I can't even begin to imagine how ANYONE, least of all THX, could possibly mistake that transfer for "the best video quality available blah blah blah...". This doesn't give me much hope for Fox's upcomming Abyss DVD.

[This message has been edited by Rejemy (edited 12-06-1999).]

[brian]

THe sound, the fact is doesnt deteriorate, the picture, and the ability of the filmakers to better express their vision

THought i would reviv an old thread

The price man, the price!!! Let's just hope that 5 years down the road we don't start seeing "DVD rot"...

[indiephantom]

[quote]Originally posted by hgoodman:
[(remember all the little "sparklies" on laserdisc from every third pressing??)

I've seen these "sparklies" on some of my old laserdiscs. Boy are they irritating. How does the pressing cause this. I thought it was happening to some of the discs because of age. I tried to take care of my old laserdiscs (especially the ones I can now finally play in DD 5.1 ) Does anyone have any suggestions for cleaners for both DVD and LD?

Oh, getting back to the topic. How could I pick just one thing I love about DVD the most. It's the greatest film viewing format in history.

[LBPound23]

My top ten favorite things about DVD:

10) The way when you press pause, the picture remains clear.
9) The size of the discs. (Easy to store.)
8) DVD menus. (Something so cool and interactive that is just a nice touch to the format.)
7) The way the disc remains in the same great condition no matter how many times you play it.
6) The lack of rental pricing. (I love buying DVDs for a movie when they first come out, instead of having to wait for a rental period to end.)
5) The storage allowance on discs...up to seven (?) times as much as CDs. (This is basically allows DVDs to be so cool and jam-packed.)
4) Instant access. (No rewinding/fast-forwarding.)
3) The relatively low price of discs. (If this price thing changes, many will be disappointed.)
2) The extras. (Everything from trailers to featurettes to cast bios to deleted scenes to music videos to outtakes to interviews...)
1) The high quality of the film. (DVD is simply the BEST way to experience a film at home.)

That's my top ten, although the list is changing all the time.

[brian]

Believe it or not, most people resist going in to the whole dvd thing because of the price of the movies. I dont have a problem with the prices, because most of the disks are well worth the price. I think people that formally used LD would think the price of DVD is cheap, but people who have been using tapes for awhile will think it is expensive. The price isnt too much of a factor for me though, because you can pick up a great disk like the abyss for only $18. I usually preorder my movies to get good prices. And for the whole sell-through only thing also makes me happy. I used to throw it in my friends face that i had the Matrix on DVD yet it wont be available to buy on tape for another 3 months(that was way back in september though).

[Damian]

Picture and sound by far are my top two favs. Suppliments would be last.

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-Damian

[This message has been edited by Damian (edited 04-10-2000).]

1-Alternate french language track (2 movies for the price of one)
2-Picture and sound
3-Extra material